Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Analytic Philosophy All Up In Da Hizzy!

The politics-type people are getting abuzz over the potential indictments from the Plamegate leak case, and the word today is that certain people who might or might not be named Karl Rove have tried to squiggle out of it by saying that they didn't refer to Valerie Plame specifically, but rather that they referred to "Joe Wilson's wife." This has, naturally, led into conversations about 19th-century German logician/mathematician Gottlobb Frege who was the father of analytic philosophy and the person who came up with the sense/meaning distinction in language. The example which keeps being given is his most famous, "The morning star is the evening star." Both the morning star and the evening star are Venus, by two different names. The sense/meaning distinction is that meaning is a kind of harder concept - Venus, in this case, refers to a specific object. Sense is the reference that we get in our heads when we think of something. In this case, we might think of the sense of "the morning star" being the visual impression of Venus, while the meaning is Venus itself.

The problem here is that later analytic philosophers who had worked with the sense/meaning distinction realized that it was basically flawed. One of them (and I always forget the name but I think it might have been Kripke) eventually demolished the distinction by claiming that all language was sense, and there is not "meaning." To take the morning and the evening star once again, the statement "The morning star is the evening star" is true, in the sense of the physcial body of the planet Venus being referred to by both terms. However, the terms can be used to refer to different things which makes the statement incorrect. If I say to you "Meet me next Monday when the evening star rises" I'm not just being cliche, but I'm giving you a specific astronomical time to meet - when the planet Venus is visible on Monday evening. If you show up Monday morning, and not in the evening, and then we try to figure out how we missed one another, and you say "but the morning star is the evening star!" you will be wrong. And I will never date you again.

What does this mean to Karl Rove? Probably nothing. I doubt the trial is going to hinge on linguistic philosophy. But he does have an out.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

No, Really - Republicans Are Racist

The Republican-controlled state legislature of Georgia is trying to institute a Jim Crow-era poll tax of $20 to register to vote if the voter doesn't have a driver's license. Naturally, this falls most heavily on poor blacks. Link here.

The money shot:

"We'll appeal it until the Supreme Court makes a decision. Hopefully by then the president will have a good conservative court up there that understands the will of the people," said Republican state Sen. Don Balfour.

The law did not go into effect until August, when it was approved by the U.S. Justice Department. Under the Voting Rights Act, Georgia and other states with a history of suppressing minority voting must get the Justice Department's permission to change their voting laws.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Monday, October 17, 2005

When In Samaria

I found myself wandering around San Francisco very early in the morning on Saturday night, and came across an abandoned cell phone. I checked the recent calls on it, and noticed one from an hour before - and if you're calling a phone at 3 in the morning, you might be interested if you get called from it at 4. That logic, perhaps surprisingly, succeeds, and I manage to meet up with the cell phone owner's friend and make the dropoff. The guy says he has nothing to offer me as a reward, which I kind of wave off, and he hands me his business card.

I've got the card, somewhere, and I'm pondering e-mailing the guy. But I don't really care for a reward. On the other hand - he handed me the card for a reason, right? Do I e-mail and say "hey, I'm the guy who brought the phone back, give me some mo-nay." Nah. Though it says he's a resident DJ. Maybe he can help me break into the DJ scene. I'd totally rule.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

As Funny As It Is True

It does no good to ask the weakling's pointless question, "Is America a fascist state?" We must ask instead, in a major rather than a minor key, "Can we make America the best damned fascist state the world has ever seen," an authoritarian paradise deserving the admiration of the international capital markets, worthy of "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind"? I wish to be the first to say we can. We're Americans; we have the money and the know?how to succeed where Hitler failed, and history has favored us with advantages not given to the early pioneers.

We are kind of trained by television to see progression through life as a series of episodes, culminating in a bang of a season-ender. Most of life is foreplay, leading up to the orgasm of first car, college graduation, or the literal orgasm leading to children. I try to not view things in this manner, but it's hard to avoid hoping that you have a very special episode in life where all your friends show up and tell you how wonderful you are.

Recent events in my life have made this kind of sexual frustration even more prevalent. For example, last term of college at college was Spring 2004 - but graduation took another year to come. Likewise, the process of getting my first permanent job, and moving out of my parents' house, has been another too-long bit of foreplay, leading to a non-release. First, the housing situation went from being able to move into a really cool place and having a housewarming party and finally being free....to a two-week sublet and who knows what? Likewise, the job situation is as much in the air, with one job started, and another one wanting to interview me on Friday. (I did tell my boss about the potential of me leaving, and he took it as well as I could have hoped.) So maybe in a few weeks I'll actually get that climax of moving EVERYthing out, getting my own place long-term, and having a job I'm sure I can stay at. As it is, though..."Now I know how my girlfriend feels."

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Oh, You Wacky CelebritiesPop quiz - which is dumber, David Beckham and Posh Spice naming their first child Brooklyn, after the place of conception (do they have sex that rarely that they can pinpoint the exact place?) or Nicolas Cage, who is naming his son Kal-el, after, um, Superman?

I'm just going to pencil into my schedule, 18 years from now - "do documentary on Kal-El Cage. Will be hilarious."

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Remixes

I highly recommend that all of you with high-speed internet connections check out this remixed trailer of The Shining. Even if, like me, your primary association with the movie is the parodies from The Simpsons, it's still worth watching.

Be prepared for a wait of a few minutes to download it, though. Patience.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Asshole Nerd Battle - Who Will Win?Penny Arcade apparently took on Harlan Ellison in a dorktastic battle royale of the wits. Shockingly, "Gabe" from Penny Arcade, not the wordsmith of the duo, seems to have been the victor. Very amusing link here.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

And the Winner Is....

Last we heard, my choices were between being an intellectual dork or a technodork. Well, the answer has come in, and I'm the type of dork that nobody likes.

That's right, I tried to get into both places, and both times, they ended up choosing someone else. There was bad timing involved, it wasn't just that they didn't like me. I only really ever talked to one of the three grad school people, so when they apparently hit it off with someone else, well, I didn't really have a chance. And the technodorks liked me, but they gave priority to the person they'd talked to first, so...I didn't really have a chance.

Friday, September 23, 2005

Song of the Week

My housing search continues to be frustrating and drive me towards wanting to get the hell out of here more and more each day. So with that in mind, this week's song is Ghost World by Aimee Man. From the sountrack of the movie inspired by the comic...or something. I don't really know, but I do know that it is a good song with a chorus that goes.

yeah I'm bailing this town orrrrrrrtearing it down orrrrrrprobably more likehanging around

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Where Do They Come From?SiteMeter, in addition to including search results that take people to this blog (I'm the #1 result for "why are moms mean when their daughters start dating?" inexplicably), has now started including the location of people who visit. Scanning through, I see regular hits from:

Vienna, AustriaGliwice, PolandOkinawa, Japan (I can guess who that one is)

I'm international!

By far the most interesting hit came from Iran, but unfortunately, it seemed to be an aberration.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Who Am I? Who Do I Want To Be?I went into the East Bay for the last time today to look at rooms, and came home with a dilemma of the sort that I most hate - having to make a legitimate choice. I believe choices should be easy. The best choices are the ones that don't even really exist - you have to pick the obvious one. And this one was obvious, until she said it.

"I used to be a tester for Sega."

And then I realized, these weren't just technodorks who happened to play some games. They were Gamer Dorks. That was a monkey wrench.

The deal at first was fairly simple. There's one house which promised everything I ever wanted. Nerdy grad students, a room which could be private, great setting. The only real problem was the location, it's a little farther than I wanted (a long walk to my workplace).

But since I was in town, I may as well check out the other offers people have given me, right? Particularly the ones who sent the really long detailed e-mails. Almost obligated to see those...right? So I did. Instead of the beautiful house near the college campus lined with trees, this is the trendy apartment, much closer to the city. And instead of the fairly open spaces of the house, tastefully decorated, it's cluttered with cool furniture, tvs, and computers. Like 4 computers in the 3 rooms I saw. I sat down to talk with the tenants. This place was worth checking out, its location was far superior, though I would have to wait longer to move in. We spoke briefly of video games, and I mentioned my love for the greatest ever monkey maraca rhythm dancing flying skull Ricky Martin game of all time, Samba de Amigo, and my disappointment that I'd never played it with the maraca controller. And then she said it.

"Oh, I have one of those. I used to test for Sega."

How much are the maracas worth in rent? Are they worth the extra ~$40? Are they worth waiting an extra 10 days to move in?

And most importantly, who are my people? Are my people the gamer dorks or the intellectual dorks? I want to be an intellectual gamer, no help there. Am I better off in the college town sort of environment, hanging out with a bunch of grad students, sipping wine and discussing African politics on their cute little porch? Or should I stay up into wee hours of the night playing Halo?

I didn't have to worry about this at Antioch. I could do both, and usually chose Halo. But do I want to stick with the video games...?

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Coming Soon: Content!Believe it or not, kids, I've got a job. I will be moving to the East Bay Area next week and starting to work. Eventually, this will mean blog posts, but as I still don't have my own computer, they might be few and far between for the first few weeks. But eventually I will be in a "city" where I go "outside" and hang out with "people."

Friday, September 09, 2005

Mixing It Up

The rise of mp3 play, along with the consistent popularity of disposible pop radio, has led to a focus on the song as the basic unit of music, instead of the album. Which in turn, has given rise to the playlist as the form of organization, and playlist translates easily into mix CD. That in mind, I'm going to post my themed mix CDs here, for two reason: 1) Because I can, and b) Because the five of you who still read my blog also like my music tastes (mostly).

That in mind, I present to you the Super Happy Fun shalalala Police Brutality Pop Song Mix badada Yay! Every song chosen had the specific criteria of requiring a chorus or strong section of the song to consist of incoherent monosyllabic bits of catchiness, you know, "shalalala" or "beep beep mmm beep beep yeah!" Some of the songs are brilliant. Some are annoying. Some are both. All will get in your head.

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Hurricane ShitheadIn case you have to defend the point of how the Bush administration completely fucked up to a conservative idealogue, try this simple talking point:

The Department of Homeland Security and FEMA should have emergency evacuation plans for every American city.

These plans should be in place for potential terrorist attacks with no warning, such as a dirty bomb. Hurricane Katrina, by the way, had several days of warning beforehand. You could call it a fire drill for a terrorist attack, but instead of lining up by the foul pole, the students blamed the school district for ruining their education and set the place on fire on their own. Or some kind of metaphor.

Also, Billmon takes a look at very recent history and discovers that the Bush administration does actually have a plan for dealing with hurricanes, but it requires a specific set of conditions. In honor of Kanye West: Two words/swing state/election year/fucked up.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

An Open Letter To The Mainstream American Media

Hey, folks. Welcome in. See, 5 years later, you all have finally realized what many of us have known since at least 9/11: George Bush and his administration are completely incompetent. He's really nothing more than a puppet sent onstage to mouth the words "We're making progress!" and "America is strong and will be stronger!" The problem is, unlike many political puppets, his handlers actually believe what they have him say.

So you're finally starting to ask hard questions and call out G-Dub's bullshit. Good for you! It's a pity you've given him a free pass since 9/11, another massive disaster that he failed to do anything relevant about except make optimistic speeches. Had you actually been doing your job, you might have prevented say, a completely idiotic, insane, and futile war in Iraq, as well as his re-election as President Stupid. Not that I'm bitter or anything, but me and people like me have known that he was above and beyond incompetent, while you have marginalized us as "shrill," "partisan", or completely irrelevant.

But hey, bygones be bygones, you know? Pity it took yet another national disaster for you to figure this out.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Further Adventures In ArguingI am somewhat astounded by the continuing saga of Cindy Sheehan, the rightously angry soldier's mother camped outside G-Dub's ranch. As the open letter I read from Ralph Nader said, "May you succeed where all others have failed." And she might. Because the American media loves moms, and they love timing things. How many days has it been? How long since a shower? Etc etc.

But even more astounding are the attacks on her from conservative idealogues. Since they can't counter the basic reason for her stunt - that we invaded Iraq and remain there for no real, coherent reasons - they have to try to come up with some way to get at her. So I've heard her called a 'wacko' and a 'traitor.' Other say that she is mad with grief, or even better, that she's been driven mad by the loony left, specifically archdemon Michael Moore.

My favorites, however, are the attacks on her through her dead son. One line of thinking I've seen has it that we shouldn't pay too much attention, because her soldier son died, and good soldiers aren't supposed to die. Therefore, I guess, he was a bad soldier and she....I don't know. I don't get it. But even better are those claiming that if her son was alive today, he'd be horrified by his mother's actions. Which is an amazing bit of logic, speaking for the dead (hey, someone call Ender Wiggin. BLAM! Dork reference!)

The best part about this is that Sheehan's questions aren't answerable by the Bushies. So they won't meet her. And she just might have staying power.

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Adventures in DebateAs I spiral deeper into boredom, I have turned to that most entertaining of boredom-relievers, the chat room. Occasionally, chat rooms spiral ever deeper into that least entertaining of arguments, the politics debate. So naturally, when my instincts for chaos get the better of me, I get involved. Here is an entertaining sample:

me: blah blah blah reasoned reply to militaristic nonsenseconservative: lol you must love michael moore huh?me: actually, I find him to be a demagogueconservative: so do you like michael moore or not?rest of chat room: he just answered that question!me: I said, I find him to be a demagogue. you do know what that means, right?conservative: yeah I know what that means. you must have voted for Gore and Kerry huh lol

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Sex Link Alert!Savage Love is running its greatest hits, and he's kicked it off with what was by far my favorite Savage Love ever, the pussy-licking tips for straight boys column. You should read it, for it is amusing.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

But I remember the internal debate I had over how powerful I wanted you, Prisstina. Do I get a fairly cheap computer and coast, or get a power rig so I can game? Ended up, I found a custom place that was cheap and could get me a powerful enough laptop that I could handle the top games of the next few years, for about $800 than an equivalent Dell would have cost.

In hindsight, of course, I should have added another $50 and gotten the TWO year warranty. Or I should have gone with a laptop chip, instead of a desktop one which fried the motherboard.

But the funniest thing is that despite getting a powerful computer, and one which could handle most modern games, with only two exceptions, every game I played on it was released before the computer. Only one of those two needed a powerful computer to play well. And while I liked it, it didn't make my life complete.

Monday, July 11, 2005

I Am AnnoyedMy computer is well and truly broken. This annoys me. I spent two hours last night trying to dismantle it, as I discovered that the problem might be my capacitors, but I managed little except to pinch my fingertips and perhaps break it further.

The problem is made worse because, in my infinite foresight, I traded for three new computer games, which I cannot play. And I want to.

I finally got a callback from a job. Nothing terribly exciting in and of itself, but it seemed a decent job, and I said I'd e-mail them to schedule a face to face interview. I got a response today saying that they were about to hire someone else.

I'm wandering around swearing to myself. I'm not sure which annoyance is causing the most swearing, but I'll be damned if I ain't annoyed.

Saturday, July 09, 2005

It's Cause The Right People Are In ChargeKing's Cross. Edgeware Road. The British Museum. I went to all of those places. My parents are going to London this fall. Isn't the War on Terror supposed to make people feel safer?

Apparently, the paid pontificators are saying that the attack was inevitable. Well, that certainly helps. I mean, I wouldn't want to be sitting here thinking it could have been prevented if the people in charge weren't fucking morons. No, they're doing the best possible job they can. Only the inevitable can stop them. Hell, God himself can't stop the inevitable. Unless he can. I'm not real sure about that. But since he blesses America, and that blessing must trickle down to America's allies, this making it impossible for EVEN GOD to have stopped the last terrorist attack on London.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Well That Wasn't So Bad

The danger of the family reunion was somewhat exaggerated, it seems. For one thing, most of the time we were there, it was just my aunt and uncle added to my normal sense of family. It was a nice Nevada summer day, warm and dry, and we sat around and did nothing. Finally, one of my cousins pulled up in her nuclear family for the last couple of hours. The other cousin and her family never showed, which might have made things overwhelming. Nobody seemed extraordinarily eager to press me about my plans for life, which was nice. In fact, the only misstep I might have made came at the end. I had played with my cousin's 6-year old kid for a while, and she thanked me for it as she left. I replied "kept her out of your hair, eh?" which seems harmless enough, but her expression went blank like I might have said something wrong.

No excess of patriotism, no grilling Rowan, no being forced to eat things I don't want to eat, all good, but unfortunately, no poker.

Still, it was remarkably comfortable, and I think the 6-year old thinks I'm wonderful for playing with her.

Sunday, July 03, 2005

Oh Sweet JesusI had a thought that this day might come, but I hadn't prepared myself fully for the possibilities. The other half of my family, which might be called the active half, has called for an impromptu family reunion on the 4th of July. And my parents and I are going.

I call the other half of my family the active half, because they actually seem to be attempting to increase. They're my mom's sister's family, and though the nuclear family of wife-husband-2 daughters is the same size in number of units as my own, they seem to have other people attached. I'm not entirely sure how, but I have heard the word "clan" or the number "twelve" or something used in reference to them. They're also more directly active, in that both of my cousins are actually procreating, a task which my sister and I have gratefully failed to accomplish.

But wait, there's more! My nuclear family tends to keep to itself. When I think "family" there's me, my parents, my sister, and my grandmother(on the mother's side, therefore the matron of this whole mess). I haven't seen any of these people that I'm supposed to know in a decade or more. My image of "cousin" involves a dark-haired girl, about 8 or 10, missing teeth. But they all know each other. Oh, yes, I'm going to be the only one there lost.

To top it all off, I am the mystery man of the family. They're practical people. They farm. Raise horses. That sort of thing. I have heard that they wonder about me and my newfangled liberal arts education. They can understand my sister getting an education in playing the viola more than they understand mine in history. So I will be the focus of Questions. And then I might be asked what my plans are. I need to come up with a good lie and stick with it. I'm currently leaning towards "That information is currently classified, ma'am/sir."

And finally, to top off the topping off.....it's on the 4th of July. I have no idea of the political affiliation of my suddenly discovered extended family, but I'd be willing to bet money that it's not mine, and there might be pro-America or even pro-military celebrations that I am going to have to find some way to courteously excuse myself from. And if there's one thing I'm not...it's courteous.

On the bright side, I hear they play poker. Maybe I can be nice to the kiddies, and hold my own in the gamblin', and thus charm everyone's feminine AND masculine sides!

Sunday, June 26, 2005

Pop Quiz!My romantic life has grown to increasingly seem like a Magnetic Fields song. Or perhaps album. Is this because:

a) those are the only love songs I listen tob) those are the sorts of love songs the people I become attached to listen toc) I have some kind of connection to Stephen Merritt and the other people associated with the Magnetic Fieldsd) those are the only genuine, honest love songs in existence